SCHOOL caretaker Ian Huntley was last night in a secure hospital charged with murdering 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

His girlfriend Maxine Carr, 25, a former teaching assistant in the Cambridgeshire girls' class, was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

She was remanded in custody to appear at Peterborough Magistrates Court today.

Huntley, 28, was detained under the 1983 Mental Health Act early yesterday after undergoing a series of medical examinations since his arrest on Saturday.

He underwent a further assessment last night and will now not attend Peterborough Magistrates Court today. His case will be listed "when he is deemed fit to attend", a Cambridgeshire Police spokeswoman said.

Huntley was transferred at 2am from his police cell to Rampton hospital in Nottinghamshire on the advice of a psychiatrist concerned at his fitness to be interviewed over the murder of the girls.

The girls' parents were informed in advance of the decision to charge Huntley.

They are still waiting to hear how their daughters died after a postmortem examination proved inconclusive.

The bodies of the best friends were found by walkers at a Suffolk beauty spot on Saturday, almost two weeks after they vanished from Soham.

Huntley was charged at about 5pm by two Cambridgeshire detectives who drove to Rampton.

Psychiatrists have up to 28 days to assess Huntley but can apply for further extensions up to six months or more.

A spokesman for Rampton hospital said its patient would remain "for an undetermined stay".

The doctors will assess whether Huntley is fit to stand trial or enter a plea.

It is still possible that a patient deemed to need mental health care could stand trial for murder, a Cambridgeshire police spokesman said.

The decision to charge Huntley followed "lengthy discussions" with the Crown Prosecution Service, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Hebb said at a news conference in Huntingdon.

Earlier it emerged that a man was arrested over allegations he phoned police claiming to have abducted Holly and Jessica.

The man, who has not been named but who is from Wrexham, Clwyd, was arrested over the weekend after officers in Cambridge received three calls from a man claiming to have abducted the 10-year-olds.

He was questioned and later released on police bail, a spokeswoman for North Wales Police said yesterday.

Floral tributes continued to pour into the girls' home town yesterday where they were transforming St Andrews churchyard into a sea of bouquets.

Children and parents struggling to cope with the emotional anguish have been receiving counselling from Cambridgeshire social workers using special helplines.

And at Ely Cathedral vice-dean Canon John Inge said, "Our heartfelt prayers are with Jessica and Holly as we commend them to God. We pray that a glimmer of hope might be with those who have been most closely involved in this terrible tragedy." Police are still searching the site where the bodies were found, along with the home of Huntley and Carr, and the primary and secondary schools where he worked.

Teams were also scouring the home of Huntley's parents, Kevin and Lynda, in the village of Littleport.